Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is a substantial $400 increase over the allowance paid by the previous government, Senator Coonan. I think it was a very serious attempt to try to take the pressure off them. As I said, we are very concerned about the pressure on pensioners. We understand that the quarterly indexation payments that they received recently are not easing that pressure alone. That is why we have made it a priority as part of the review of the tax system to make a serious attempt to tackle the structural issues that underpin the value of the pensions and to look at what we can do to assist pensioners in a more fundamental way rather than the piecemeal way that the previous government did.